Bottle carrier



E. H. LUPTON BOTTLE CARRIER May 30, 1939.

Filed Oct. 25, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l May 30,1939. E. H. LUPTON. 2,160,551

BOTTLE CARRIER K Filed Oct. 25, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 30, 1939 PATENT oi-"Flor.

2,160,551 no'r'rm c'umma' Elmer H. Lupton, Ilchester, Md. ApplicationOctober 25, 1938, Serial No. 236,940

aciaims. (Cl. 229-28) similar flexible material divided by crease lines 1 into a bottom panel and two side panels of equal length, the. end portions of the side panels having hand holes and interlocking means and con- 10 stituting the handle portion of the carrier. The bottom panel is of a suitable size to support two rows of bottles side by side, and to space the bottles apart and hold them in upright position on the bottom, I provide on the blank a spacing 15 strip having two rows of openings to receive the bottles. This spacing strip is supported above the bottom by hinged flaps connecting its ends with the ends of the bottom panel. In setting up the carrier, the side panels are turnedup- 20 wardly and they engage the 'sides of the spacing strip, and interlocking connections are provided between the'side panels and the spacing strip or its supporting flaps so that the latter will be maintained in their upright positions. The han- 25 die portions of the side panels are then looked together. A large opening is made in each side panel through which the bottles may be inserted or removed. Tongues,cut out of the side panels, depend from the handle portion and extend be- 30 tween th taining them in upright-positions.

In the present application, the bottle carrier is the same as that described in the aforesaid application, except that the interlocking con- 35 nections referred to are omitted and in their place the flaps which support the bottle spacing strip are held in upright positions by hinge connections between the supporting flaps and the side panels. These connections prevent endwise o movement of the bottle spacing strip when the carrier is set up and the carrier may be folded and unfolded more readily with the hinge pieces than with the interlocking devices. In the accompanying drawings, Fig.1 is a plan view of the blank from which the carrier is formed;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the carrier with 55 Referring to Fig. 1 oi the drawings, A reprerows of bottles and assist in.main-.

sents a blank of cardboard, or analogous flexible material, comprising a strip a scored transversely as shown at l and 2, dividing the strip into a central panel 4 which constitutes the bot tom of the carrier andtwo panels 5 and 6 which form the sides and handle portions of the carrier. Connected to the endsof the bottom'panel 4 are flaps and 8 which are foldable upwardly with respect to said panel along crease lines 9 which are in line with the edges of the strip a. 10 The flap 8 is integral with a strip b which is foldable with respect to said flap along the crease line Ill. The strip 12 has two rows of circular openings II and i2, each opening of the proper diameter to permit the body of a 15 bottle to fit freely within 'it. In the completed carrier, the end portion 13 of the strip b is glued or otherwise secured to the flap i and when the flaps and 8 are in upright position, they support the stripb above and parallel with the bottom panel 4, as shown in Fig. 5 and also shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The strip b and its supporting flaps constitute means for spacing the bottles apart and holding them in position upon the bottom panel. As the flaps l and 8 are hinged to the ends of the bottom panel and also to the spacing strip b, it is necessaryto provide means forpreventing endwise movement of the spacing strip when the carrier is set up, and for this purposethe blank is formed with hinged corner pieces I 4, I4 joining the ends of the flap I to the adjacent edges of the side panels 5 and 6 respectively, and similar corner pieces l5, l5 joiningv the ends of the flap 8 to the side edges of said panels. These corner pieces are joined to the ends of the flaps along extensions of the crease lines I and 2, and to the side panels along extensions of the crease lines 9, and each comer piece is foldable upon itself along a crease line a: which bisects the corner piece. When the side panels 5 and 6 are raised, as in Figs. 2 and 3, these hinged corner pieces fold in the space between the strip b and the bottom panel '4 and when the bottles are in place, lie substantially parallel with the side panels and between the latter and the adjacent bottles, as shown in Figs.

3, 4 and 5 and support the flaps and prevent endwise-movement of the bottle spacing strip b.

Each of the panels 5 and 5 of the-blank has 7 short crease lines l6 and I1 extending inwardly from its side edges, these lines being spaced from the lines which define the bottom panel by a distance equal to approximately the height of the bottles to be carried, and from the inner ends of these crease lines a downwardly curving cut i8 is made in each side panel of the blank, thus forming a large opening i9 in each side of the carrier through which the bottles 0 may be inserted into the openings in the spacing member b and onto the bottom panel 4, and by the same cuts correspondingly large tongues 20 are formed, which tongues, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, extend downwardly between the rows of bottles,- when the carrier is set up and filled, serving as separators between the rows of bottles and helping to maintain them in upright positions so that the bases of the bottles rest flatly against the bottom panel 4.

The handle portion of the side 6 comprises the part 6 of the blank between the crease lines iB-il and a crease line 2|, beyond which is a part 6 which folds along the crease line 2| against the part 6* and is glued to the latter,

forming a handle portion of double thickness.-

Oblong openings 22 in the parts S and 6 of the blank register when these parts are glued together and form a hand opening 22 in the handle portion of the completed carrier. Similarly the extension 5 of the side 5 of the blank between its crease lines l6-i'| and the crease line 23, and a part 5 which folds against the part 5 and is glued to it, form a double thick handle portion for the side 5 of the carrier. Tongues 24 punched out of the parts 5 and '5" register with one another when these parts are folded and glued together, and these form a tongue 24 of double thickness adapted to extend through the opening 22 in the handle portion of the side 6 of the carrier, as shown in Figs. 2 and -3. The head on this tongue is wider than the length of the opening 22-, so that when the tongueis pushed through the opening, the handle portions are locked together. If desired, the tongue and opening in the handle portions may be punched out after the parts composing these portions have been folded and glued together.

To set up the carrier shown in Figs. 2 and 3,

the flaps carrying the spacing strip are raised to upright positionand the sides 5 and 6 are folded upwardly and the hinged corner pieces fold inwardly between the spacing strip b and the bottom panel 4 alongside the side panels, and the handle portions are locked together by the locking tongue 24. 'The bottles can then be inserted through the openings IS in the sides, the separating tongues 20 being pushed inwardly by this operation so that they occupy a position between the rows of bottles. The hinged corner pieces'then lie between the side panels and the end bottles in the rows, and hold the flaps in upright position preventing any endwise movement of the spacing strip, so that the bottles will be held against movement on the bottom' panel. When'the carrier is filled the upper portions of the bottles are exposed to view, as is desirable. The individual bottles can heremoved by simply lifting them through the side openings of the carrier.

What I claim is:

having openings through which the lower parts of the bottles may extend and flaps hinged to the ends of the bottom panel and the spacing strip and adaptedto support the latter strip above the bottom panel, and folding hinge connections between the ends of the flaps and the edges of 'the side panels adapted to fold inwardly between thespacing strip and the bottom panel and prevent endwise movement of said strip when the side panels are brought to. their upright positions. v 2. A bottle carrier comprising an elongated strip of flexible material creased transversely forming a bottom panel adapted to support two rows of bottles extending side by side transversely of the strip and two side panels adapted to fold upwardly along said crease lines, the end portions of the side panels constituting the handle portion of the carrier, means for spacing the bottles apart and for holding them ,in position on the bottom panel comprising a spacing strip of, approximately the same'dimensions as the bottom panel and having openings through which the lower parts of the bottles may extend and flaps hinged to the ends of the bottom panel and the spacing strip and adapted to support the.

of flexible material creased transversely forming a bottom panel adapted to support two rows of bottles extending side by side transversely of the strip and two side .panels adapted to fold upwardly along said crease lines, the end portions of the side panels having registering openings and constituting the handle' portions of the carrier, end flaps hinged to the ends of the bottom panel, and folding hinge connections between the "ends of the flaps and the edges of the side panels adapted to fold inwardly against the side panels and, when the bottles are in position in thbarrier, to prevent unfolding of the end panels when the side panels are brought to their upright so 

